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The move was denounced by the Ministry of Defence, however, which denied distributing biased material and insisted school-based campaigns were vital to raise awareness of the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force.

The fears raised by teachers follow a report earlier this year from the Joseph Rowntree Trust which suggested that the Army "glamorises" war in recruiting campaigns.

Speaking at the NUT's annual conference, Paul McGarr, a teacher from east London, said: "Let's just try and imagine what that recruitment material would have to say were it not to be misleading.

"We would have material from the MoD saying 'Join the Army and we will send you to carry out the imperialist occupation of other people's countries.

"'Join the Army and we will send you to bomb, shoot and possibly torture fellow human beings in other countries.

"'Join the Army and be sent, probably poorly equipped, into situations where people try and shoot you and kill you because you are occupying their countries.

"'Join the Army and if you survive and come home, possibly injured and mentally damaged by the experience, you and your family will be shabbily treated'.

"When I see the MoD putting out recruitment material saying that, then maybe I won't have a problem with using it in school. Until then, I think that all recruitment material is misleading and should be opposed."

The NUT said some lesson materials prepared with MoD backing undermined schools' legal duty to present controversial issues to children in a balanced way.

Last year, the union wrote to Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, to complain about a lesson plan intended to help pupils learn the skill of "writing to argue". The plan focuses on the topic of "the ongoing occupation of Iraq by British armed forces".

The MoD insisted the lesson plan contained two articles - one which is positive about the Iraq conflict and the other critical. The purpose of the lesson plan was to show that different perspectives can be applied to one issue, it claimed.

Stefan Simms, a teacher from Ealing, west London, also criticised adverts for the Royal Marines broadcast at half-time during televised football matches, which he claimed were "glamorising gang culture". He said young troops were being used as "cannon fodder for the profits of oil companies".

Addressing the conference in Manchester, Mr Simms said the military found it difficult to sign up youngsters in Scotland after teachers campaigned to end recruitment activities in schools.

"I would be personally gutted after years of putting time and professional effort into the students I teach, helping their education and preparing them for adult life, to find out that some of them have said 'I decided to join the Army'," he said.

"We know they will go ill-prepared, ill-equipped and lied to."

The NUT stopped short of calling for an all-out ban on Army recruitment activities in schools, but said any material distributed to children should be balanced.

They also proposed a summit of teachers, education experts and campaigners to consider the issue of military recruitment in schools.